U.S. bishops call for greater effort for refugees

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January 2003

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U.S. bishops call for greater effort for refugees
WASHINGTON (December 30, 2002)—Finding meaningful solutions for refugees fleeing war would contribute to a more peaceful world, according to two U.S. bishops who recently visited four African refugee camps.

Bishop John F. Kinney of St. Cloud (MN) and New York Auxiliary Bishop Robert A. Brucato called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the U.S. government to pursue third country resettlement as a lasting solution for refugees, especially in situations where the only apparent alternative is for refugees to languish indefinitely in camps.

The two bishops, accompanied by two staff members from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services, returned from their visit to four camps in Kenya, Tanzania, and Guinea on December 6. The group went to camps where some 200,000 refugees from Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been in exile, many of them for close to a decade.

"Many of the refugees with whom we met have lost hope of finding peace and there must be a solution beyond languishing indefinitely in camps," Kinney said. He said he was particularly moved by the question—"what is going to happen to us?"—asked of him by one Liberian refugee who had recently fled the attacks of rebels in his home country.

Kinney and Brucato urged the international community to echo the response of the Catholic Church: this refugee will finally obtain the protection of a government whether it is the government in his home country or a country of refuge.

Specifically, they urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.S. government to give particular attention to the needs of vulnerable refugee children and women who cannot rebuild their lives in their home countries, but need to rebuild their lives in a third country of refuge. "Consideration should be given by UNHCR to recommend more refugees for resettlement in the United States," Brucato said. With a worldwide refugee population of 14 million refugees, it is baffling that over the past ten years, 100,000 refugees authorized for resettlement were not resettled in the United States.

In addition to their meetings with UNHCR, U.S. embassy officials and non-governmental secular and faith-based organizations, Bishop Kinney and Bishop Brucato met with the bishops of Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Ghana and Guinea and were able to celebrate Mass at Kakuma refugee camp and Nairobi in Kenya, Lukole camp in Tanzania, and the Kountaya refugee camp in Guinea.

Bishop Kinney said the message he and Bishop Brucato brought back to the United States with them builds on Pope John Paul II's message for World Day of Peace, which will be celebrated January 1.

"The Holy Father's message for the World Day of Peace commemorates the fortieth anniversary of Pope John XXIII's Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), a landmark statement on the rights and duties of individuals and states to each other," Kinney said, "Recalling that we have obligations to the most vulnerable people of distant lands, especially refugees, is an important way we can celebrate the message of Pacem in Terris."

Kinney and Brucato, who are members of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration, visited four refugee camps in East and West Africa from November 26th through December 4, 2002. Bishop Brucato and MRS staff continued on to Geneva, Switzerland, where UNHCR is headquartered, for further talks.

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